The Octopus in the Parking Garage - by Rob Verchick

About the Book

Rob Verchick explores what climate resilience looks like on the ground, taking the reader on a journey into the field. Engaging and accessible for nonexpert concerned citizens, this book empowers readers to face the climate crisis and shows what we can do to adapt and thrive.

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

One morning in Miami Beach, an unexpected guest showed up in a luxury condominium complex's parking garage: an octopus. The image quickly went viral. But the octopus--and the combination of infrastructure quirks and climate impacts that left it stranded--is more than a funny meme. It's a potent symbol of the disruptions that a changing climate has already brought to our doorsteps and the ways we will have to adjust.

Rob Verchick examines how we can manage the risks that we can no longer avoid, laying out our options as we face climate breakdown. Although reducing carbon dioxide emissions is essential, we need to adapt to address the damage we have already caused. Verchick explores what resilience looks like on the ground, from early humans on the savannas to today's shop owners and city planners. He takes the reader on a journey into the field: paddling through Louisiana's bayous, hiking in one of the last refuges of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert, and diving off Key Largo with citizen scientists working to restore coral reefs. The book emphasizes disadvantaged communities, which bear the brunt of environmental risk, arguing that building climate resilience is a necessary step toward justice.

Engaging and accessible for nonexpert concerned citizens, The Octopus in the Parking Garage empowers readers to face the climate crisis and shows what we can do to adapt and thrive.

Review Quotes

The Octopus in the Parking Garage brings to life how climate change is affecting people all over the United States and what coping with ongoing climate change will look like. It sparkles with colorful examples and even hope.-- "American Scientist"

The prize for best book title this month, and possibly this year, goes to The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience. An ability to make complex policy engaging is a hallmark of its author, Rob Verchick, a climate law scholar.-- "Financial Times"

Verchick tells a lively story full of historical, philosophical, economic, sociological, scientific, and, importantly, human insights.-- "Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development"

The Octopus in the Parking Garage is a very important addition to the canon of climate literature--thinking ahead even further out, investigating the colossal mess we'll have on our hands even after we've stopped the rise in atmospheric CO2.--Po Bronson, coauthor of Decoding the World and NurtureShock

A splendidly written book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage sounds a sobering eight-armed alarm about the catastrophic threats posed by climate change, yet simultaneously offers wonderfully engaging and hopeful stories of effective community collaboration and resilience to avoid many of its worst consequences.--Richard Lazarus, Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law, Harvard University

Engaging. Edifying. Enlightening. Highly recommended.-- "Choice Reviews"

Even as we battle to lower emissions, we have already emitted so much planet-warming carbon pollution that there's no avoiding significant climate-related damage. That means we must step up and invest to protect ourselves from rising seas, worsening storms, more frequent floods, more intense wildfires, and all the other effects of climate upheaval--all while fighting fossil fuel emissions and disinformation. Rob Verchick has created a smart roadmap for planning for the future on a changing planet.--U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Even though it covers a tough topic, this book is a joy to read. It's so well written and wide-ranging -- the reader learns so much. [A] daring book.-- "The Instigator"

Highly recommended.-- "American Library Association (ALA)"

Rob Verchick reminds us that we must have a comprehensive response to climate change, focusing our attention and resources first on those who will be most affected and least able to deal with the inevitable changes. Every leader with any kind of platform should read this book and use whatever platform we have to help drive the changes needed to save our planet.--Tom Linebarger, executive chairman, Cummins Inc., and former member of the Business Roundtable

Verchick deftly illustrates how our greenhouse gases are mucking things up. A gifted writer, Verchick also comprehensively explains the laws, policies, and current politics without getting bogged down in details. He even makes the U.S. power grid interesting. He enlivens the book with personal experiences from his childhood in Las Vegas and his current home in New Orleans. His call to action to his readers at the book's close is pitch perfect.-- "The Green Dispatch"

We are past the point where anything we do will stop climate change cold. It's coming and it's bringing with it everything from sea level rise to more instances of animal viruses infecting humans. We need to focus on how we prepare for the change, minimize the damage, and recover from extreme events. Rob Verchick has given us both a tour of and a tour de force on the subject. Ranging from comparative anatomy to anthropology, history, philosophy, engineering, and politics, this is a fascinating, provocative--and important--book.--John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

About the Author

Rob Verchick is a leading climate law scholar who designed and implemented climate-resilience policies in the Obama administration. He holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, is a senior fellow in disaster resilience at Tulane University, and serves as president of the Center for Progressive Reform. Verchick is the author of four books and host of the podcast Connect the Dots.